The Power of One

Have you ever thought that your efforts don't count? There is no sense in voting, caring, giving, or helping because you are only one? Well everyone counts and one little effort can snowball into a giant blizzard of good things.

Yesterday morning a friend sent me a link to her daughter on Reddit.com. Her daughter had posted she would give a gift of up to a $30 item from Amazon and have it shipped to arrive on Christmas. She quickly received a request to send an E-Z Bake Oven to a little girl in Oregon. Then she started receiving dozens of requests to help and for help. She started matching them up and stayed up until 3AM matching people until people started matching themselves. Over 300 children received gifts they wouldn't have from caring strangers. See, one little good deed can end up helping many.

The other day, my mother sent a link to a New York Times article about giving the gift of hope. How to help those in need around the world while you do your holiday shopping.

Finally, another way to help others while you shop is to use goodshop.com to do your shopping. Go there, pick your charity, do your shopping on the company's real website and a percentage of your purchase will go directly to the charity of your choice. Or use goodsearch.com to search on line. Every time you search a donation is made to the charity of your choice.

If everyone was just a little nicer, cared a little more, took a moment out of their day to help someone else, how much better would the world be? One little tiny step can help so many others.

So I challenge you all, what is one good deed you can do for someone in the coming months. Help an elderly neighbor clear his driveway? Give a gift to someone in need? Take someone who can't drive to the grocery store? There are millions of ways you can help someone. Some require money, some don't but all require a few minutes of your time to help someone else. Can you do this? I will.